Carolina Miranda knows how to keep a secret. As the star of Netflix's newest hit mystery thriller, Who Killed Sara?, maintaining a poker face on and off the screen is a skill the 30-year-old Mexican actress has had to master. The series premiered on March 24, and quickly skyrocketed to the top of the Netflix streaming charts, gripping fans across the world. The streaming giant confirmed a second season mere days after its release, and it became the most popular non-English language Netflix show ever.
Today, Season Two premieres on Netflix, giving fans a satisfying, twist-filled look into the layers of mystery surrounding Sara's death and who the real Sara was all those years ago. To recap: the series follows Alex after he's released from prison, having been tricked by the Lazcano family into taking the blame for his sister's death in a supposed parasailing accident when they were teenagers. He sets out to exact his revenge on the rich and powerful Lazcano family, whom he believes killed his sister because she was pregnant by their son. Things get tricky when Alex discovers there's more to the story than he thinks, and even more complicated when he falls for Elisa (Carolina Miranda), the youngest of the Lazcano family, who was a child when Sara died.
Elisa is often the voice of reason in the show, someone who it feels like the audience can trust. She seeks justice and helps Alex even as he pushes her to see the darkness in her own family, and the crimes they've committed. Who Killed Sara?'s first season took the audience on a lurid journey through the dark underground of the powerful Lazcano family, marked by betrayal, cheating, lies, murder, sex trafficking, and more. Season Two is just as thrilling, and will leave fans questioning everything. Ahead of the premiere, Miranda talked with Esquire about playing Elisa, what could be next in a possible third season, her favorite memory from set, and more.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. It contains minor spoilers for the first three episodes of Who Killed Sara? Season Two.
Esquire: What first drew you to the show and made you excited about playing Elisa?
Carolina Miranda: It's a difficult show because it's a thriller about mystery and suspense. So that's very exciting, to make a kind of poker face and not reveal details of the history so the audience can see something different, and they don't know who killed Sara.
ESQ: In the new season, we see Elisa in all kinds of dangerous situations. What kind of preparation did you do for that?
CM: It was amazing to make the second season because the preparation was more inside. It's not action, to run or to have this kind of body type, it's more inside. To make all the emotions come out. It was very difficult because if you see the show, Elisa was torturado [tortured]. We were working a whole year for the second season. So we have the pandemic time for table work with production and with the directors and the actors. In all the pandemic, we were in touch so we can know everything about the character and how we are going to play with that.
ESQ: Who Killed Sara? is the most popular non-English language show on Netflix. What does that international success mean to you?
CM: I talk with all my partners in this TV show. We say, "You know what we are doing for the world? For the Latin world?" It's amazing to open doors. Everybody can see our talent, our product that we can do here in Mexico. All of the TV show was filmed here in Mexico. So it's amazing to have this type of talent and that the Latinos come out and show all the talent and all the things they can do.
ESQ: What do you think is Elisa's main motivation? She's in such a difficult position of being part of the Lazcano family, but being in love with Alex.
CM: I think the thing that moves Elisa always, it's not the love. It's a very good relationship with Alex. But to Elisa it's about the justice. She is always looking about the justice and the truth about what happened. Because she discovers a family that she didn't know. She grew up with that family, so it's kind of difficult to understand that all your family are different. So I think Elisa is always looking about the justice and the truth. If somebody killed Sara, she wants them to be in jail.
ESQ: If there were a third season in the future, where would you want to see Elisa go?
CM: If we have a third season, it's just about the answer of the audience that see us and they love Who Killed Sara? so that's only the reason we could have a third season. So we don't know if we are going to have a third season. But I know that everybody is going to love the second season.
If you ask me, like an actress, what do you want to do in the third season? Thinking about Elisa, I would like that Elisa becomes crazy and discovers everything, and now she can be the bad character in the story and she loses all the justice and the truth, and the good person that Elisa is. It could be interesting to see the other side of Elisa, that it's not always a good person. It could be the bad person in the third season. But I don't know! I'm not the writer.
ESQ: Elisa is such a good character throughout the show. As a viewer, you don't really know who to trust, but you can usually trust—
CM: You can trust Elisa! Because she was very young when somebody killed Sara. So you can trust Elisa.
ESQ: True, she was a young child. But it would be interesting to explore that side of her. That deep down, she's still a Lazcano so maybe she does have the ability to get a little darker.
CM: I'm going to say something for this interview that it's going to be weird and the audience is going to think like, "Oh my God." Did you remember in the first season, what does Elroy do to his parents? He killed both of them. And he was a kid! So [laughs]... it's kind of weird that Elisa was a kid, too. But the kids also are crazy. So, it can happen, everything with this.
ESQ: The show looks like it was a lot of fun to film. So much mystery, drama, twists, and turns. The settings are beautiful. Do you have a favorite memory from set?
CM: We have many memories because it's crazy people, so... [laughs]. It was very fun to film with them.
Alex, in the second season, comes to the hospital to see how I am because I'm [involved in] an explosion. So Alex comes to the hospital very serious, very frustrated, like always Alex is. And I was off camera, waiting in the hospital on the bed, and he has the camera here and he needs to do this poker face, serious. When he see me, I was with my foot like making something weird and face weird. You can't laugh. And they say "cut," and he say like, "Come on, Caro, why are you doing me this? It's so serious."
ESQ: Have you heard any fan theories or reactions to the show that you as a cast member enjoyed?
CM: There's many good ones. And I hear all the stories that the fans do about Who Killed Sara. My family, too. It's not just the fans. My family and my friends say to me and tell me like, "Who killed Sara? I know. Because I see the TV show and I think it's going to be..." and they make a table, a chart, of all the things that are happening. My family too, they have a quinielas [bet]. So if somebody wins, they're going to win all the money, everybody's.
ESQ: So you have to keep a poker face in real life with your family.
Yeah! I can't say anything. And everybody tells me, at a party, like we are drinking and when they see that I'm having fun, it's like, "Oh, by the way—who killed Sara?"
And it's like, come on, I can't say anything. My mother would say to me too. Like, "I'm your mother. You need to tell me because I'm your mother." [Laughs]."No, mother, come on, it's my work!"
